Let's Learn Everything!

By Maximum Fun

Science communicators Ella Hubber, Tom Lum, and Caroline Roper learn about anything and everything interesting! Each episode they teach each other about a science topic, and learn about a miscellaneou... more

· Science

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The podcast currently has 148 episodes available.

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Number 1: 112: Life in Exclusion Zones & Every Single Character
What happens to life inside exclusion zones like Chernobyl? Is it good? Bad? Or something much more interesting? And what happens when you try to codify every single character from human language? Well, it definitely leads to some fascinating linguistic rabbit holes! Images we talk about: Przewalski’s horse (yes that’s how it’s spelled) Frogs Character U+FDFD Arabic Text Decorative U+FDFD's Tom's Favorite Use of Kashida Timestamps: (00:00:00) Intro (00:03:12) Life in Exclusion Zones (01:01:48) Every Single Character (01:52:06) Outro Support us with a Max Fun Membership! Join our Discord! We also learn about: Actually defining it made it creepier, the zone rouge, we an area of Earth uninhabitable from war, chernobyl release over 100 radioactive elements, they really need to name the zone of alienation the zone of doing taxes, the liquidators actually did a good job of stopping the spread, is this a rewilding experiment? Ella deleted emails to poach this topic, Przewalski’s horse (yes that’s how it’s spelled), technically feral vs wild horses, I’ve reached the nuance center of my nuance pop, why isn’t it my job so sample chernobyl frogs, nearly all pine trees near chernobyl were wiped out, “the selective pressures of radiation”, bright birds used up their carotenoids for color, we’re doing nuclear ecological biochemistry, god that was an ugly laugh, maybe its counterintuitive for the small things - no this one sucks, the slow horror of a lack of decomposition, the ecosystem is not rewilded it’s entirely new, the Korean DMZ is like an ecological semi permeable membrane, DMZ ecology research institute, the DMZ has 40% of Korea’s endangered species, it’s a pitstop along the east asian australasian flyway, endangered cranes have bounced back in the DMZ, the DMZ crane watch, the cranes and natterjack toad require human farming to thrive, synonyms of nuance and thrive, Baarter economy standing ovation, conflictful chicken, Unicode is the ISO standard for text on computers, ASCII’s 128 characters is surely enough right? why do you have a period accurate phone? it turns out other cultures want to use the computer, there are 159,801 characters in unicode, the basic multilingual plane sounds like startrek shit and it kind of is, I mean it’s not like it has cuneiform except it does, braille unicode exists for a reason, braille doesn’t just map one to one with letters it also has contractions, contracted braille is a stenography, tweeting more in japanese, 101,996 CJK characters, Max Woolf’s Big List of Naughty Strings, after Mamdani was elected I had to learn how to pronounce the bismillah, “Bismillah is the Przewalski’s Horse of this topic”, I said we shouldn’t dive into the history of a language halfway through a topic but fuck it, LR0’s terrific Arabic typography essay, arabic script can be perfectly justified, “the justification lives inside the words”, Kashidas stretching across a map made it click for Tom, maing the bismillah beautiful, we all just want to make text look cool, the ottoman printing press ban myth, the cursed lost printed quran, oh my god is this the unifying thing, weirdly internet explorer had kashida justification for 1 year? Inshallah you find on the internet what you’re exploring for. Sources: Chernobyl Frogs Image Wikipedia: Exclusion Zones World Nuclear Association Wikipedia: Zone Rouge Explorers Web: Montserrat and its Exclusion Zone Guardian: UN Buffer Zone in Cyprus International Atomic Energy Agency: Chernobyl United Nations Development Programme: Chernobyl Recovery Development BBC Future: Chernobyl’s Wildlife Royal Society Proceedings B: The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone as a Wildlife Refuge Wikipedia: Red Forest Current Biology: Long-term Census Data Reveal Abundant Wildlife Populations at Chernobyl Science: Chernobyl Hits Birds Hard Microorganisms: Soil Microbes and Plant-Associated Microbes in Response to Radioactive Pollution The Conversation: The Mystery of Chernobyl’s Wild Horses San Diego Zoo: The Last Wild Horse Animals: Endangered Przewalski’s Horse, Equus przewalskii, Cloned from Historically Cryopreserved Cells San Diego Zoo: Birth of Cloned Przewalski’s Foal Korean Konsult: DMZ - Demilitarized Zone DMZ: The Civilian Control Line (CCL) towns of the Korean Peninsula Reuters: South Korea to Shift Civilian Restricted Line South China Morning Post: The Korean DMZ Guardian: How Wildlife is Thriving in the Korean DMZ Royal Society Notes and Records: From Warzone to Bioreserve Zooniverse: DMZ Crane Watch Biological Conservation: Winter Foraging of Threatened Cranes in the Demilitarized Zone of Korea Cultural Anthropology: Toward an Anthropology of Landmines KNews: Nature Thrives in Cyprus’ Forgotten Buffer Zone UFZ EuMon conference: Monitoring Biodiversity of the Buffer Zone in Cyprus Satoyama Initiative: The Cyprus Buffer Zone as a Socio-Ecological Landscape --- UC Berkley Unicode Overview Unicode's History Unicode on Braille RNIB Contracted Braille Buzzfeed on Japanese Tweets LR0's Incredible Arabic Type Essay Design Principles of Kashida Justification: A Unique Technique in Arabic and Persian Mapping The Lost Quran's Discovery Kathryn Schwartz's "Did Ottoman Sultans Ban Print?" Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joinlearn
September 10, 20261h 59min
Number 2: 111: Astronaut Cady Coleman, Life in Space, and What Astronauts Learn
What does an astronaut actually learn in training? And what surprises them about having to live in space? Well, fortunately astronaut Cady Coleman is here to answer these and many more of our questions!! See us live in London! LETSLEARNEVERYTHING.COM/LIVE See Tom live in NYC! OurFindingsShow.com Images we talk about: Cady's Background Image Timestamps: (00:00:00) Intro (00:05:03) Astronaut Training and Space Life (01:10:42) Space Suits (01:23:45) Outro Support us with a Max Fun Membership! Join our Discord! We also learn about: Astronaut school, “the mission is exploration and only a part of it is human spaceflight”, the telerobotic surgery was real, living in NEEMO, Cady learned to remove a gallbladder, “what is it that I have to remember is not being simulated well?”, oh the telerobotic surgery was happening under water, it’s about sharing what you’re learning at the same time, spending 11 days underwater, bedrest studies in hawaii are actually a toll and a service, communication is key even in space, trust us space food is going to get old, not every day of training is remove 10 gallbladders, putting yourself in the picture humanizes it, which way is up? sleep flashes from cosmic rays, liquid sensors in our neck make you pee when you lie down and reduce blood volume in space, you can’t cough to hide your pee on the ISS, the future of the ISS, astronaut feet facts, Paolo and Cady’s toenail system, learning to fly in zero g, “you learn to live in 3 dimensions”, losing things in zero g sucks, CO2 buildup for the group photo, not washing clothes upset the balance, it’s all about fluid physics, “it’s all about interfaces between solids and liquids - and up in space it’s the biggest game in town”, peeing in space is easier than camping, how you determine your space order with feet, the domino effect of space suit sizes, your space suit is your space ship, IT’S LESS MATERIAL, there are people who are still waiting their turn, “how do you make sure these voices are heard when their presence is not missed?”, how to work for change collaboratively, you shouldn’t have to work so hard to participate, “oh that’s going on the website Cady”, one small step for you and one big step for democracy. Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joinlearn
August 13, 20261h 30min
Number 3: 113: Rediscovered Organs & Bird Watching
Wait, how are we rediscovering organs in 2026?? Or... are we? Well let's learn about the history and fads of the insides of our bodies! And what is bird watching, why do we all love it, and how casual and competitive can you get with it? Images we talk about: (Also available at https://www.letslearneverything.com/113/) Clay Liver Online Terminologia Anatomica Salivary Glands Bird Study Skins A Field guide to Birds Example Page Timestamps: (00:00:00) Intro (00:04:56) Rediscovered Organs (01:05:15) Bird Watching (01:50:12) Outro Support us with a Max Fun Membership! Join our Discord! The Name Website Study skins, We also learn about: Huh?? Mesopotamian organ divination, sheep liver phrenology models, everyone needs to talk about this, Al-Razi’s “Doubts about Galen”, the great ignorance time skip, hmm this dead body must be wrong, the dissection fad, the murder act, you don’t know Burke and Hare?? body snatching and anatomy murder, the vestigial craze, Wiedersheim’s minimal viable person, the problem of naming organs, 20 synonyms of organs, Ella goes feral over the online Federative International Programme for Anatomical Terminology, our 3-4, hi Dad and Ella’s mom - hope you enjoyed that clitoris joke, our 4th pair of handlebar moustache salivary glands, the interstitium getting reverse pluto’d, labelling an organ is useful but also not the full picture, gen Z loves birding, FUCK YOU JONO WE’RE DOING THE HISTORY, is paleontology birding if you’re looking at sauricia, ornithomancy, where there have been birds - we have watched birds, study skins, hey what if we looked at them alive? in 1901 Edmund Selous discovers bird empathy, “lay down the gun and take up the glasses”, POWs from WWII publishing their findings, slovenly non scientific bird watchers, it’s a hobby with no proper definition, Merline and ObsIdentify and Birder and Ebird and Rare Bird Alert and Birder’s Interface, it’s pokemon! WHO’S THAT bird, “oh my god I actually cannot do this any more”, apps aren’t perfect, twitchers, the New Jersey World Series of Birding, Big Year, the first book specifically for birding, the first big year was just some guy who wrote how many birds he saw one year and told people about it, a big year is a physical and mental trial for glory, it’s for the birds, has their love curdled or have they unlocked a true kind of love? why do we do anything at all? I do love birds but man do I love humans. Sources: NIH: Organ Definition 2024 Paper: The Most Ancient Sources of Anatomic Knowledge 2025 Paper: Galen’s Typology of Organs 2013 Paper: The Air of History (Part IV): Great Muslim Physicians Al Rhazes BBC Bitesize: Medieval Medicine Wellcome Collection: Getting Under the Skin 2011 Paper: The Study of Anatomy in England From 1700 to the Early 20th Century Book: Dissecting the Criminal Corpse: Staging Post-Execution Punishment in Early Modern England by Hurren ET, Chapter 7. Wiki: Vestigiality Britannica: Anatomy Terminologia Anatomica 2019 (TA2) Official BearBoat Terminologia Anatomica 2019 (TA2) Cleveland Clinic: Organs Wiki: List of Organs 2021 Paper: The tubarial salivary glands: A potential new organ at risk for radiotherapy Article: The tubarial salivary glands: A newly recognized organ with dental significance CORDIS: Did scientists just discover a secret organ in your head? Netherland Cancer Institute: Cancer researchers discover new salivary gland 2021 Paper: The tubarial salivary glands: A potential new organ at risk for radiotherapy Cleveland Clinic: Interstitium SciAm: Meet Your Interstitium, a Newfound "Organ" 2024 Paper: A comprehensive analysis of the tubarial glands 2018 Paper: Another new organ! is this a golden age of discovery in anatomy? BBC: Scientists just discovered the largest ever human organ – and we all have it Independant: Human brain is actually two separate organs, scientists find 2026 Paper: Two parallel neural ectoderm progenitors contribute to the developing brain 2005 Paper: Gastrulation Movements: the Logic and the Nuts and Bolts Neuroscience News: The Brain Is Two Separate Organs Joined by Evolution LiveScience: 'Useless' female organ discovered over a century ago may actually support ovaries, study finds Uni of Colorado: Rediscovering the Rete Ovarii: The “Antennae” of the Ovary 2024 Paper: Rediscovering the Rete Ovarii: the Development, Role, and Function of a Secreting Auxiliary Structure to the Ovary --- BBC: Why Gen Z Birdwatchers Are Flocking to Reserves CNN: Why Gen Z is going bonkers for birding Wikipedia: Ornithomancy Smithsonian Magazine: How Bird Collecting Evolved Into Bird-Watching My Bird Buddy: History of Bird Watching Haikubox: Evolution of Birdwatching Pitville History: Edmund Selous British Birds: Best Bird Watching Apps 10000 Birds: Can I rely on Merlin Science Base: Bird ID Apps Sussex Wildlife Trust: The Good the Bad and the Middling ID Apps Reddit: Pokemon Go is Basically Birding Reddit: Ever Wanted to Catch Em All IRL? Reddit: Why is Gen Z Suddenly Obsessed with Birdwatching Youtube: Listers New Jersey Audubon Society: World Series of Birding Wikipedia: Big Year Smithsonian Library and Archive: A Field Guide to Birds American Bird Association: Big Year Rules Audubon: The Big Year According to Birders Birding (American Birding Association): The Next Big Thing Surfbirds (Wayback Machine): Alaska, The Last Frontier Attu Island NPR: The Real Birdwatchers Behind Hollywood's 'Big Year' Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joinlearn
September 24, 20261h 55min
Number 4: 110: Horsepower & Makeup
What even is horsepower? Is it a silly unit of measurement, or actually an underrated marvel?? And how old is makeup? Why do we do it? And what historic looks can you steal for your next night out? What are the flaws in scientific publishing, who's responsible, and how can we fix it? ALSO SEE US LIVE IN LONDON!!! LETSLEARNEVERYTHING.COM/LIVE Images we talk about: Papyrus Image Fish Palette Patch Portrait Painting of Two Ladies Timestamps: (00:00:00) Intro (00:03:15) Horsepower (00:48:26) Makeup (01:39:07) Outro Support us with a Max Fun Membership! Join our Discord! We also learn about: I’m taking horse pills to get their powers, we can answer questions without getting klaxonned, abbreviated for french reasons, the meter is 1 ten millionth the distance from the north to south pole, I’m going to be talking about power “oh god”, power is the movement of a mass over time, you’ll notice nowhere in that definition did I mention horses, James perfects the steam engine, you can’t just say “hey this engine will get us to the industrial revoltuion” you have to sell it in horses, come up with your own unit of power dweeb, a horse can produce 15 horsepower, you’re about to have a lot more nickels, there was a metric and imperial horsepower, all the international names for hosepower, watt SI unit is on first base? the father son and the holy ghost of electronics (the amp, volt, and watt), we didn’t have a unified unit for power before horsepower, Thomas Edison measured lightbulb efficacy by horsepower, IT WASN’T AN IRONIC CHOICE IT WAS CAUSE AND EFFECT, this isn’t a podcast it’s a slumber party, Caroline and Ella’s metallic blue eyeliner/facepaint, webster’s definition is somehow too broad and too narrow, prehistoric pigemtns may have been body paint, Ella’s surprisingly informative ancient egyptian ASMR video, from kohl to green malachite, caroline hiding the sexy bits of the papyrus from us, this makes my tummy hurt, fish palettes, ancient greek prostitues were required to wear lipstick, modern man or ro-man, a woman buys lotions and perfumes with cheating in mind, Elizabeth I’s lead and vinegar makeup, painting on fake veins, plucking hairs to match the queen’s forhead, the optical illusion dot, Caroline’s favorite fad: beauty patches, it’s so wild how excluded darker complexions are in the market when this topic started in ancient egypt, perhaps makeup imitates the moment of an orgasm, im inventing new sexism: men are blurry, we finally just asked women why they wear makeup, wearing makeup because we have to vs we want to, for other or ourselves, the ro-manosphere. Sources: History of the SI Units History of Imperial Units The Fan-Tastic paper: The Origin of the Horsepower Unit James' Encyclopedia Britannica Biography Horserpower From a Horse Paper Siemen's Address for the Watt Unit Edison Papers Measuring Lightbulbs in Horsepower NOAA Lightning Stats --- Merriam Webster Makeup Definition Blog: Bodypainting Why Do We Do That? Makeup Archeology Journal: Prehistoric Body Painting- 2000 Independant: 300000 year old body art Smithsonian: Evidence of Fur and Leather Clothing, Among World’s Oldest, Found in Moroccan Cave 2017 Paper: Painted in red: In search of alternative explanations for EuropeanPalaeolithic cave art Britannica: Makeup Blog: History of Makeup Wiki: Beauty and Cosmetics in Ancient Egypt NHM Utah: Makeup in Ancient Egypt Blog: Ancient Egyptian make-up Book: Ovid on Cosmetics University of Kent: The Painful Art of Being a Roman Woman Wiki: Cosmetics in Ancient Rome The Guardian: Medieval Christian Misogyny Shapes How We Judge Women Today, Says Scholar Royal Museums Greenwich: Elizabeth I: Fashion and Beauty DMDA: You Must Get a Patch Auction Listing: Portrait of two ladies. Patch marks to their faces Wiki: Allegorical Painting of Two Ladies Smithsonian: Make-up Preston Park: The History of Victorian Makeup YouGov: One in Six Women Wear Makeup at the Gym YouGov: How Often - and why - American Women wear makeup YouGov: One in Twenty British Men Now Wear Makeup 2022 Paper: The contrasting effects of body image and self-esteem in the makeup usage Blog: Why Do We Chase The Post-O Glow? 2015 Paper: Facial coloration tracks changes in women's estradiol 2015 Paper: Cosmetics Alter Biologically-Based Factors of Beauty: Evidence from Facial Contrast ABC News: Makeup Makes Women Seem More Competent, Study Says 2024 Paper: The Influence of Makeup on Individual Self-Identity: An Exploratory Study 2016 Paper: Does make-up make you feel smarter? The “lipstick effect” extended to academic achievement Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joinlearn
July 30, 20261h 47min
Number 5: Recast: Ella on That's Absurd, Please Elaborate
Due to some house woes, we're recasting Ella's excellent appearance on That's Absurd, Please Elaborate, where they actually solve a meme and invent Pee Day. Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joinlearn
August 27, 20261h 7min